Chapter 13
Olivia
come help me paint cabinets
and I’ll put some cinnamon rolls in the oven
Me
on my way
The next morning I threw on some old cut off shorts and a tank top, barely brushed my hair, and headed over to Olivia’s for a day of painting.
“I barely slept last night,” I bemoaned as she poured me a mug of coffee. “Keep these coming.” The morning sun streamed through her kitchen blinds, glimmering across the kitchen counter where I sat.
“Any particular reason you couldn’t sleep?” Olivia asked as she handed me the mug.
“Kind of.” I took a hot sip. “It’s all the stupid, Adam festival stuff.”
“Is it Adam stuff or festival stuff?”
“It’s all mingled up together in my head and confusing me.”
“What’s confusing about it?” She sat down beside me at the counter, shoulder to shoulder.
I laid my head on the counter instead of answering. She rubbed my back reassuringly.
“He’s confusing,” I mumbled into the granite.
“What’s he doing that confuses you?”
“Olivia, it’s everything about that man. I don’t know what I think about him. I don’t know what I feel about him. He’s gotten me so confused that I’m pretty sure I’m now confusing him, too.”
“I thought he wasn’t giving you such a hard time anymore. He was having a cute redemption arc,” Olivia said, still rubbing my back.
“He isn’t giving me a hard time. He’s giving me too easy of a time now, honestly.” I lifted my head off the counter.
She cocked her head at me. “Too easy of a time. Let me put that in my big sister translator.”
“Yesterday we went to this festival in Bradberry, right? It was just easy between us. Too easy. It was like all our teasing evolved from frustrating to playful. When did that happen? Like we even took bites of each other’s lunch. Olivia, at one point, we rode on a carousel together and there was like this…vibe between us. I kept giggling involuntarily. I even reached out and gave him a shove near the end purely because I wanted to touch him…Like, what is happening to me?” I didn’t mention that I wanted to touch him all the time and the shove was me reaching my breaking point.
“That’s called attraction, Luce.” Olivia rolled her eyes at me.
“You think it’s simply attraction?” I latched onto the idea like an escape route out of this mess. “Maybe what I’m feeling between us is purely physical?Not anything deeper than that.” If it was just my body reacting to him, I didn’t have to worry about my heart.
“I don’t know. If you two were giggling and talking easily?—”
“I need a simple answer, Liv,” I cut her off. “Like maybe it was the ice cream getting to my head. Or his sexy professor glasses and perfect forearms.”
Olivia shook her head. “Fine, Lucy. You’re simply physically attracted to Adam. If you ignore that, focus on his personality and how much you dislike him, you’ll be fine,” she said blandly, like she didn’t believe a single word.
I nodded. “I needed that. I just need to get through the festival.”
“Hey, every time you have an Adam crisis, you can come over and help me paint. It’ll be therapeutic.”
We turned Folklore on shuffle and started prepping the kitchen for painting. We sang along to Taylor Swift and accidentally got minty green paint on our clothes. I was on the road to maybe, sort of, getting Adam out of my head.
Then I got a phone call from him. My pulse raced at his name on my phone screen. I hated that I liked him calling me so much.
I answered and very casually said, “Oh, hey, Adam.”
“Hey, Lucy. I need to go over something with you.” He sounded serious.
“Okay, well, I’m at my sister’s helping her paint. Can we go over it on the phone?” I set my dripping paint roller down in the plastic container.
“I need to show you some plans the staff came up with for the elementary art display.” He cleared his throat. “They’re wanting to rework a lot of it. I need you to look at it.”
“Rework it?” I glanced at Olivia who was pouting in the corner. “Can you email me the plans?”
“I want to explain it to you.” He’d never sounded so urgent before.
“It’s just that I’m currently covered in paint.”
“I can come to you,” he said. “If that’s okay?”
I looked to an eavesdropping Olivia. “I’ll have to see if my sister’s okay with you?—”
“Come on over, Adam!” Olivia shouted from the stepstool, green paint on her arms and fingers.
“Send me the location?” Adam said eagerly.
“Hi, Lucy. Olivia, thanks for letting us barge in.” Adam showed up not much later with Victor in tow, whose eyes immediately went to Olivia.
“Hey, Olivia,” Victor said, forgetting I was standing in the doorway, too. “This house is incredible,” he said as we closed the door behind them.
Adam mmhmm’d in agreement as we walked through the entryway.
“Thanks, guys. You were in construction, right?” Olivia asked Victor as he followed her into the kitchen. “Maybe you can give me some renovation tips. Right now, all I have is YouTube.”
“I’d be happy to,” Victor said, looking around. “I miss the work, the grind. I feel a little cooped up in the office.”
“It’s true. He’s always bouncing around like a kindergartener in need of recess,” Adam added.
“I have a lot of work for you here, if you want.” Olivia laughed. “I’m not sure what you charge, though.”
“I’d be happy to offer free labor,” he said down to his feet, tugging on his shirt.
I looked at Adam and nodded toward the living room across the open space. He followed me to Olivia’s worn, navy couch. We sat side by side, shoulders touching.
“The staff wants to change things up a bit?” I asked as he spread the papers on the coffee table.
“They drew up these plans this morning,” he said tentatively.
I looked them over. The paperwork not only redid the entire layout and flow, but they downsized the entire show. “Oh.” I swallowed. “They want to change things up a lot.”
We would have to call so many teachers and tell them we’re cutting the display their students had grown to love and worked so hard on. So many students would be disappointed. So many teachers would be angry.
The giddy hum I’d been feeling in my belly since last night went silent. All butterflies stilled.
“I know. It’s why I came right over,” he said, his voice small. “I know it’s a big shake-up, but the team was thinking we should give more space to vendors who are making us money. This is a lot of space for zero dollars.”
I dropped the papers on the table and turned to him. “This space isn’t for dollars. It’s for the community. These students and their families are the community.”
“I get that. I do. I think the art show is an important part of the festival and we’re not taking it away?—”
“Again, with that line. That’s the whole spiel you gave me weeks ago: I’m not taking your role at the festival away. I’m just changing it. We’re not taking away the student art show. We’re only changing it.”
“Because it’s true!” Adam’s voice rose a little and Victor and Olivia stopped chattering.
“I’m tired of that being true. You did take away my role at the festival. It’s not mine anymore. This,” I pointed at the papers on the table, “isn’t my festival.”
“You’re right. It isn’t your festival, Lucy. It’s not mine, either. It’s the city’s. The city management team came up with these plans. Not me, might I remind you.”
This was the Adam I feared all along. Worried that behind the silly guy teasing me, surprising me, delighting me yesterday, was a callous government worker quietly working to pull the rug out from under me.
“Did you even try to fight it?” I asked, unable to contain the hurt in my voice. “Or pushback even a little?”
“Would you believe me if I said I did? Because you’re coming at me like I drew these up by myself.” He picked up the plans and shook them.
“You are the guy in charge. I know you had a hand in this. You can’t just put this on the team like they did it behind your back,” I said, angry because part of me was hoping that maybe somehow that was true.
“Fine. No, I didn’t push back. I had the original idea to cut it back some—then it spiraled. This proposal isn’t what I intended.” He dropped the papers back down on the table, his gaze downcast.
“I can’t believe this.” I stood up, my heart racing. Had he been wanting to be pals so I wouldn’t get too mad when he showed up with plans like this? “I knew you were going to do something like this. Acting all chummy with me yesterday, knowing all along you were going to cut something behind my back.”
Adam drew in a breath like I’d hit him in the gut. “I was waiting until I had some actual plans to show you. I wasn’t working behind your back. You just want to assume the worst with me.”
“What happened to fifty-fifty, Adam?” I demanded.
“Why do you think I’m here?” He stood up, too, so we were face to face. Both of us were out of breath, angry. “These aren’t final. I had the idea to cut it back, the team came up with this proposal, and now you and I figure it out together. Fifty-fifty.”
Oh. My blood slowed. He wasn’t asking me to agree with this. He was asking for my input. “You could’ve led with that, Adam.”
“I wanted to talk to you right away. I didn’t strategize like I normally would.” He ran his hand through his hair.
“But cutting back was your original idea?” I leaned down and picked up the plans.
“Some. Not to this extent.” He adjusted his glasses nervously.
I chewed on my lip, glancing from the plans to him. “After my input, these won’t look the same.”
“I have a lot of people breathing down my neck wanting more money. I have new vendors wanting more space. But I also have you,” he twisted his hands anxiously, “and your grandmother, and the heart of the students to think about.”
He had me, and my grandmother, and the students on his mind.His words made me melt like ice cream on a hot afternoon.
The anger and frustration were gone, but there was still something coursing through my body, making my breath short, my heart quick. Adam was always doing something to my body.
I glanced up and saw Olivia watching us from her spot resting on her elbows at the kitchen counter. I didn’t want her to know from the look on my face or the tone in my voice that I didn’t want to fight with Adam anymore, that instead I wanted to grab him by his stupid button-down.
I shouldn’t cave so easily over a few sweet words and big blue eyes. I couldn’t lose my focus.
“Okay, let’s get to work.” I sat down on the couch.
Adam nodded, sitting back down beside me.
What was annoying about Adam now was how much I was starting to like him.